Get Email Updates

The Dispatch E-Edition

All current subscribers have full access to Digital D, which includes the E-Edition and
unlimited premium content on Dispatch.com, BuckeyeXtra.com, BlueJacketsXtra.com and
DispatchPolitics.com.
Subscribe
today!

AUSTIN, Texas — A judge ordered Texas prison officials to disclose the supplier of a new batch
of lethal-injection drugs to attorneys for two inmates set to be executed next month, but she
stopped short of revealing the manufacturer to the public.

The ruling yesterday by state District Judge Suzanne Covington came after the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice argued that threats against execution-drug suppliers are escalating.

Attorney Phil Durst said the inmates had a right to know where the drugs originated.

“Is it eBay? Did they have some good customer service rankings? We have no idea where it’s from
or how it was made,” Durst said. “Maybe this stuff is A-OK. Maybe this stuff was laced with
strychnine off the street.”

Texas prisons spokesman Jason Clark said the agency was “disappointed” and would appeal.

Doyle, 29, was convicted of beating food delivery woman Hyun Cho, a South Korean native, to
death in 2003 with a baseball bat, putting her body in a trash can and stealing her car.

The prison agency lost its previous supplier last year after the compound pharmacy’s name was
made public and it received threats.

Attorneys for two Death Row inmates filed the lawsuit that led to yesterday’s abruptly scheduled
hearing. Convicted killers Tommy Lynn Sells and Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas are scheduled to die on
April 3 and 9 respectively.

The current supply of pentobarbital used for lethal injections in Texas expires on Tuesday.
Prison officials said last week they have a new supply but declined to disclose the supplier’s
name.

On Wednesday, an Oklahoma judge voided that state’s execution law, agreeing with inmates that a “
veil of secrecy” about the lethal drugs violated their rights. Oklahoma officials plan to
appeal.